The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Claire forcefully pushed herself to sit up on the bed. She groaned loudly as she felt the heavy lactic acid burning in her abs from all the hard flexing she was forced to do to deal with the pure pain. She leaned over and stared directly down at her own bare leg.

And she slowly ran her good hand right over the smooth skin.

”There really are no marks.” Claire muttered slowly.

Serena spun around and looked at the sweating teenager sitting on the stool.

”Can you heal multiple times consecutively?” Serena asked rapidly. ”Or do you need to heavily rest before you start each healing session?”

Hugo wiped his wet forehead right with his dirty sleeve.

”I need to actively recover my mana pool a little bit.” Hugo rasped quietly. ”But I should be able to do a little bit more today.”

And Aria suddenly spoke up from her spot next to Adrian’s bed.

”You should sit down and meditate to recover your mana first.” Aria told him as she looked at him seriously. ”Then you can do it again.”

Hugo gave a slow nod.

He slid right off the small wooden stool and dropped heavily onto the floorboards. Because he was much more comfortable sitting cross-legged on the hard wood anyway. And the stool was just way too small for his massive frame. So he closed his eyes and immediately began pulling ambient mana straight into his chest.

Everyone else in the room just went back to their own quiet tasks while Hugo meditated.

An entire hour and a half passed in total silence.

Hugo finally opened his eyes. He got himself back up onto the wooden stool and got right back to work.

But this time, the target was much harder. Claire had a massive chunk of actual flesh missing from her hand. It wasn’t just a clean cut or a deep tear. The flesh was completely gone.

And because of that, Hugo couldn’t just do it in one single shot.

He had to take multiple rounds of heavy healing. It took him three separate and absolutely agonizing sessions just to get the structural integrity of her arm fixed properly. Claire had to forcefully bite down on a thick ball of cloth just to keep from screaming out loud. Because the magic was violently forcing new muscle fibers and skin tissue to rapidly grow straight out of nothing.

When it was finally over, Hugo collapsed heavily right back onto the stool while practically hyperventilating.

Serena quickly stepped up and removed the bloody gauze from Claire’s hand.

But this time, there was a mark left behind.

It wasn’t a gaping hole anymore. But it wasn’t exactly pristine skin either.

Because a thick and shiny patch of pink scar tissue completely covered the back of Claire’s hand. The skin looked almost translucent. It was pulled tight over the flesh like a severe burn scar that had just finished healing.

Hugo just sat there on the small wooden stool. He stared right down at his own trembling hands for a few seconds.

”I just need a little bit more time.” Hugo wheezed quietly.

He wiped his face and looked right up at Aria.

”Where do I need to go to find my next patient?” Hugo asked.

Aria just raised her small hand and pointed a finger directly at the stone wall separating them from the guest room.

So Hugo gave a slow nod. He forced himself up on shaking legs and stumbled right out into the hallway to find Lorcan.

A few days passed exactly like that.

The mansion settled into a very quiet routine. Because while Hugo was out grinding his blessing on the injured Oresfall soldiers, Adrian and Caelum were busy working on the parallel runic boards.

It was a slow and totally frustrating process. Adrian couldn’t physically move or speak properly yet. So he had to rely entirely on Aria’s mental link to dictate the complicated runic geometry directly to Caelum.

And Caelum would carve the lines and shapes straight into the thick oak board. And Adrian would aggressively correct him through Aria whenever Caelum’s carving angle was even slightly off.

By the time the first wooden board was fully carved and tested, an entire week had passed.

But it was much better than before. It was a heavily stacked and parallel runic array that was magnitudes better than the crude version Caelum had originally made himself.

They were just about to start carving the second board. The specific array designed to massively increase the efficiency of active mana breathing methods.

And that was exactly when Hugo walked right back into the master bedroom.

He looked much better now. His color was completely back and he wasn’t shaking anymore. He looked right at Adrian lying on the bed and then he looked at Caelum sitting at the wooden desk covered in heavy wood shavings.

There was nobody else in the room except for Serena. She was just sitting quietly on the second bed where Claire used to sleep.

So Hugo looked right at the noble girl.

”Should I go and find Lady Aria?” Hugo asked awkwardly.

”No.” Serena answered. She stood up and smoothed out her heavy skirts. ”Let me go and find her.”

Serena left the room. And she came back just a few minutes later with Aria walking right beside her.

Aria immediately walked straight up to the mattress. She established the mental connection with Adrian and then she turned to look at Hugo.

”If you are ready,” Aria said out loud. ”You can start.”

Hugo gave a firm nod and rolled his heavy shoulders.

”I finally got the enlightenment.” Hugo announced quietly. ”I think it is the exact one that you talked about last week. Pain Tolerance.”

He looked straight down at his own hands.

”Before, whenever I punched a solid stone wall or completely broke a finger, I would obviously feel the pain. But I just forced myself to ignore it through pure willpower.” Hugo explained to them. ”But yesterday... the actual pain I felt from the exact same action was a lot lower than usual.”

Aria quickly turned to look at Adrian.

’Yeah.’ Adrian projected right into her mind. ’That is definitely Pain Tolerance. Which is great.’

[A/N: I have 1 more Chapter ready and I’m gonna write another one. So if I manage to stay awake for another hour, I’ll be able to upload two more for you guys soon. ]